'Bourne' drops to $38 million due to Olympics: All three openers hit by closing ceremony's massive aud

August 13, 2012|Andrew Stewart | Variety

While the overall domestic box office was hit by the Olympics Closing Ceremony on Sunday, Universal's weekend champ "The Bourne Legacy" bore the brunt of that day's deflated tally, with revised weekend totals at $38.1 million vs. the studio's originally estimated $40.3 million three-day gross.

U originally had anticipated that the closing ceremony would affect "Bourne" -- the studio estimated that the pic's Sunday take would trail Friday by a considerable 18%. But the Olympics event wound up having a much larger impact on the B.O. than projected. Capping two weeks of strong Olympics viewership, NBC's primetime coverage of Sunday's four-hour extravaganza averaged 26.9 million viewers.

For Warner Bros.' second-place pic "The Campaign," revised weekend figures, at $26.6 million, came in 3% lower than the studio's $27.4 million estimate. Holdover "The Dark Knight Rises" also lost a little ground, grossing $19 million vs. $19.5 million.

Sony's midweek opener "Hope Springs" fell slightly with $14.7 million in three days vs. $15.6 million. Pic's final five-day figure came in at $19.1 million.

The ceremony's effect on the domestic B.O.'s newcomers was considerable, since all three openers were heavily geared toward adult auds. The nation's heat wave also could have kept some moviegoers from venturing out of their houses this weekend.

The Olympics Closing Ceremony seemingly had little impact on "Bourne" internationally: The pic wound up earning $7.7 million from just 13 markets, compared to the pic's projected $7.8 million overseas start.